On and on the Rangers and Blackhawks played into the third overtime at Madison Square Garden on April 28, 1971. At times it seemed like no one would win Game 6 of their Stanley Cup semifinal series. Still, the diehards had a renewed sense that good things eventually would come from their wait.

In the previous round, Bob Nevin’s goal in overtime of Game 6 at Maple Leaf Gardens had given the Rangers their first series victory in 21 years. They had also won Game 1 at Chicago Stadium in overtime, on a goal by checking center Pete Stemkowski. So, even facing elimination, even after down 2-0 in Game 6, the Rangers were convinced their karma had not run out.

Rod Gilbert cut the lead in half, then Jean Ratelle tied the score at 2-2 four minutes into the third period. The Rangers controlled the play in the first overtime, and when both Bill White and Stan Mikita hit the post after Mikita had staggered Ed Giacomin with a shot to the mask, the Rangers still had plenty of luck remaining, provided they had enough oxygen.

The Rangers breathed it from tanks before they skated out for the third overtime, when Tony Esposito kicked a blueline drive by Tim Horton to the left-wing sideboards, where Ted Irvine retrieved the puck and fired again. The Blackhawks goalie stopped that one, too, but Stemkowski was unmovable at the doorstep.

“I just blasted, didn’t even look to see if it went in,” he said.

The roar at the 3-2 victory, which people remember lasting almost as long as the game, told him that at 41:29 of overtime and two minutes before midnight, the Rangers’ pumpkin coach still was gassed for Chicago and Game 7, thanks to Stemkowski, their kielbasa-eating prince.

“Breakfast of champions,” Stemkowski had told his teammates, even before winning a game that could have run into breakfast. A local butcher promised the hero of what coach/GM Emile Francis called “the franchise’s greatest moment” a year’s supply of sausage.

“It was a tough game to come down off of,” Stemkowski recalled. “But we played pretty well in Chicago.”

In Game 7, the Rangers were tied 2-2 in the third period when Bobby Hull scored off a faceoff and an empty-net goal sealed a 4-2 Chicago victory. Turns out, the sausage didn’t last for the promised full year, but Stemkowski’s moment endures.

“I thought we won an exciting game, but lost a series,” he said recently. “And 25 years later, people are still telling me where they were when I scored.”